Digging Deeper: How Purpose-Driven Enterprises Create Real Value

by Dietmar Sternad, James J. Kennelly, Finbarr Bradley

What is the primary purpose of business? The standard answer is ‘making profits,’ but some visionary entrepreneurs and leaders fundamentally disagree. Instead of just making money, they choose instead to “dig deeper” and make a difference through creating real value – improving the lives of others even as they find deeper meaning in their own. These leaders build enterprises that provide identity and a sense of purpose, create positive relationships and a place to learn and thrive, embed sustainability in all that they do, and strive to improve the quality of life of all of their stakeholders. Although not their primary focus, they also make healthy profits, as their unique approach to value creation provides them with a sustainable competitive edge.Digging Deeper is a book full of inspiring stories that illustrate that there is an alternative to a myopic and narrow capitalism that trades in inequalities, exploitation, collective burnout and negative consequences for our shared natural environment. Remarkable examples from all over the world vividly demonstrate how enterprises can create real value through focusing on what the authors call the 6 long-term orientation, lasting relationships, local roots, limits recognition, developing a learning community and taking leadership responsibility seriously in its very best sense.Digging Deeper liberates the term “value” from the tight chains in which the global financial community has bound it and demonstrates that businesses can contribute to a better life for all ‒ if their leaders can go beyond viewing enterprises as single-purpose money-making machines and develop purpose-driven enterprises that create real value for all.

272 pages, Paperback

Published December 29, 2016